Try to put together the best possible 53 man roster while staying under the $143 million salary cap.

This may be a little too time intensive, so when I have more time, I may adjust the rules a little bit to try to just put together the best 22 man roster with an adjusted cap. I'd also like to limit the use of rookie salaries somehow. I've gotta get some sleep though, so I'll adjust this a bit later.

For now, try out the 53 man thing if you're up for a challenge. The NBA version of this would be cool, too.

I agree with cheato, I think to make it realistic would be to allow 4-5 players that are on rookie contracts. The average NFL career is 3.3 years so that can be a great reference point to use for considering rookie contracts.

Stumbled on this, it's an older post but I came up with a team under the 2016 $155,270,000 cap. I think I only have 2 rookies and that's my FB and backup LB. So I avoided the easy picks of Le'Veon Bell and Odell Beckham Jr.

1. QB - Tom Brady - $14,000,000 (Patriots)

2. QB - Colt McCoy - $1,800,000 (Washington)

3. QB - Bruce Gradkowski - $680,000 (Steelers)

4. RB - Matt Forte - $3,000,000 (Jets)

5. RB - Alfred Morris - $1,087,500 (Cowboys)

6. RB - Dion Lewis - $1087,500 (Patriots)

7. RB - Fitzgerald Toussaint - $600,000 (Steelers)

8. FB - Nikita Whitlock - $525,000 (Giants)

9. WR - Antonio Brown - $12,370,833 (Steelers)

10. WR/KR - Devin Hester - $3,833,334 (Falcons)

11. WR - Rishard Matthews - $3,333,333 (Titans)

12. WR/ST - Marc Mariani - $680,000 (Bears)

13. WR - Nate Washington - $680,000 (Patriots)

14. WR - Andre Roberts - $600,000 (Lions)

15. TE - Rob Gronkowski - $6,618,750 (Patriots)

16. TE - Jeff Cumberland - $680,000 (Chargers)

17. TE - Phillip Supernaw - $600,000 (Titans)

18. OT - Ryan Clady - $5,500,000 (Jets)

19. OT - Sebastian Vollmer - $5,208,334 (Chargers)

20. OT - Jermon Bushrod - $1,437,500 (Dolphins)

21. OT - Eric Winston - $1,090,000 (Bengals)

22. OG - Marshal Yanda - $4,010,882 (Ravens)

23. OG - Zane Beadles - $2,633,333 (49ers)

24. OG - Garrett Gilkey - $675,000 (Buccaneers)

25. OG - Laurent Duvernay-Tardif - $633,575 (Chiefs)

26. C - Alex Mack - $4,050,000 (Falcons)

27. C - AQ Shipley - $835,000 (Cardinals)

28. DE - JJ Watt - $14,500,000 (Texans)

29. DE - Rob Ninkovich - $4,750,000 (Patriots)

30. DE - Jared Crick - $1,750,000 (Broncos)

31. DE - Darryl Tapp - $600,000 (Saints)

32. DT - Tyson Alualu - $3,000,000 (Jaguars)

33. DT - Terrance Knighton - $2,018,750 (Patriots)

34. DT - DeAngelo Tyson - $675,000 (Seahawks)

35. DT - Gabe Wright - $655,289 (Lions)

36. OLB - DeAndre Levy - $7,650,000 (Lions)

37. OLB - Rey Maualuga - $4,084,375 (Bengals)

38. OLB - Ray Ray Armstrong - $700,000 (49ers)

39. OLB - Shaquil Barrett - $525,000 (Broncos)

40. MLB - Derrick Johnson - $3,500,000 (Chiefs)

41. MLB - Kiko Alonso - $991,418 (Dolphins)

42. MLB - Philip Wheeler - $680,000 (Falcons)

43. CB - Josh Norman - $8,000,000 (Washington)

44. CB - Prince Amukamara - $5,593,750 (Jaguars)

45. CB - Jerraud Powers - $1,750,000 (Ravens)

46. CB - Kyle Arrington - $1,566,666 (Ravens)

47. CB - Tyler Patmon - $600,000 (Bears)

48. FS - Darian Stewart - $3,250,000 (Broncos)

49. FS - Brynden Trawick - $825,000 (Raiders)

50. SS - Harrison Smith - $7,278,000 (Vikings)

51. SS - Deshawn Shead - $600,000 (Seahawks)

52. K - Cairo Santos - $600,668 (Chiefs)

53. K - Swayze Waters - $450,000 (Panthers)

Cap Space left: $213,710

I'm a little soft in the middle of the defensive line but I like Terrance Knighton can be a beast. Otherwise I think I'm solid all the way around. Thoughts?

The only issue I have is the receiver spot. Brown is the best receiver in football, but you don't have another receiver on that roster that I trust at all. I'd replace Brown with someone like Jordy Nelson and swap out Hester with Golden Tate or Emmanuel Sanders. You'd still have a top shelf #1 (assuming Nelson is pre-ACL Nelson again), but you'd also have a reliable #2.

The only issue I have is the receiver spot. Brown is the best receiver in football, but you don't have another receiver on that roster that I trust at all. I'd replace Brown with someone like Jordy Nelson and swap out Hester with Golden Tate or Emmanuel Sanders. You'd still have a top shelf #1 (assuming Nelson is pre-ACL Nelson again), but you'd also have a reliable #2.

Hester is my return man. Honestly, I'm very high on Rishard Matthews and think he's a legitimate No. 2 receiver in the league. He is very similar to Jarvis Landry, which is why Miami didn't keep him. Also, I think Washington horribly misused Andre Roberts and think he can be a very solid slot receiver when used properly. Nate Washington is a crafty veteran who can catch the ball. At the same time, Gronk would be my No. 2 receiving weapon too. But I was thinking that, dropping down from Brown to Jordy and Sanders with a cheaper return man. It was interesting to put this together certainly. I had a few combinations of teams I wanted to build.

The easy part was Brady. At $14M he's by far the best value as just 18th on the list of most expensive QBs. Drew Brees is a ridiculous $30M cap hit, Eli, Stafford, Rivers, Romo, Cousins, Palmer, Alex Smith, Jay Cutler and Kaepernick are all more expensive than Brady.

Josh Norman tied at 18th at CB helped out too. His big deal isn't really all that big his first year.